Herein, related art may be discussed to put the invention in context. Related art labeled “prior art” is admitted prior art; related art not labeled “prior art” is not admitted prior art.
Regardless of the amount of pre-release testing, computer software is rarely flawless when it is released. Security issues, compatibility issues, and other problems may be discovered post release. Accordingly, software developers can release patches to update the software. In the case of some operating systems, hundreds or thousands of patches may be available, so that users often rely on the operating system developer for recommendations regarding which patches to install.
Making such recommendations can be complicated because users have different requirements. Some users may require the latest version for all patches, others may require the amount of patching to be minimized, and others may require something in between. Some users may inform the vendor of the patches currently residing on a system, while other users may prefer to keep such information secret. Some users may require that all their computers have the same or very similar sets of patches installed, while others may prefer tailoring patches to each computer. The present invention addresses the problem of tailoring patch solutions to user requirements. This and other features of the invention are apparent from the description below with reference to the following figures.